Throwing money around in mosques is not usually the done thing at
Friday prayers, Islam's weekly holy day.
But when Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi exhorts the 1,500 followers that cram
into the mosque that towers over the back alleys of Jhang city to put
their hands in their pockets to help his election campaign, the
faithful immediately begin tossing crumpled banknotes in the direction
of their leader.
"Do you truly love the Caliphs of Islam?" he shouts at the crowd.
"Stand up and sacrifice your money like showers of rain!"
There are strict rules banning all campaigning in mosques, but it's
doubtful there will ever be consequences. Ludhianvi's critics say he
is getting away with far worse because the police, the courts and the
election authorities are too scared to touch him.
Many are troubled that a man who has been in and out of prison on
suspicion of terrorism and inciting hatred against Pakistan's minority
Shias should be allowed to run at all.
Ludhianvi is one of dozens of hardline Islamist candidates running in
Saturday's elections whose names have been lodged under a clause in
the country's anti-terrorism law that allows police to keep close tabs
on anyone suspected of involvement in terrorism and sectarian
violence.
In theory Ludhianvi is meant to report to a police station each day,
but he never does, he says.
"He's a proclaimed offender, he should be arrested rather than allowed
to contest elections," said Waqas Akram, the former Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N) occupant of the Jhang seat who is now
masterminding the extremely close-fought campaign for another
candidate, his father.
Akram says Ludhianvi could have been banned from standing on other
grounds, including failure to declare a number of court cases pending
against him. "He didn't mention a single case against him but none of
the courts will hear our petition," he told the Guardian at a meeting
of party workers in a campaign headquarters complete with a mobile
cage containing a snoozing lion – the big cat being the PML-N's
symbol.
Ludhianvi was one of the leaders of the banned Sunni sectarian group
called Sipah-e-Sabah Pakistan (SSP) that has been linked to hundreds
of murders of Shias, a minority sect of Islam in Pakistan. In recent
years gunmen have hauled Shias off buses on remote mountain roads and
suicide bombers have brought carnage to major cities.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a spin-off organisation from SSP, is one of
Pakistan's most deadly terrorist organisations. Although SSP was
banned more than a decade ago, the organisation simply changed its
name to Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ), which Ludhianvi heads. ASWJ says
it is fielding more candidates for the national and provincial
assemblies than ever before.
The prospect of Ludhianvi winning a place in parliament will be taken
as a sign that Pakistan is failing to tackle one of the country's most
serious security threats.
Ludhianvi, who came second in 2008, looks well placed to win the seat
he is contesting in Jhang city, a ramshackle town that was the source
of violent sectarianism in the 1980s. Activists claim the anti-Shia
sentiment arose in response to economic hardships among rural workers
who revolted against their Shia landlords. However, there are plenty
of Sunni landlords in Jhang, a vast area comprising several national
assembly seats.
Ludhianvi's followers, all of whom wear little ladders – the electoral
symbol of the alliance of religious parties ASWJ belongs to – have
been going door to door in an impressive effort to get out the vote.
Speaking to the Guardian after prayers in the bedroom of the mosque's
guesthouse, Ludhianvi said that should be no bar to him standing,
saying he had never been convicted. "It is against the most basic
fundamental rights to have to go to a police station each day, to be
put in a cell without a trial," he complained.
Indeed, a common complaint of Pakistan's approach to extremists is
that while they get arrested from time to time, they are eventually
released when the controversy has blown over.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a security analyst, said candidates like Ludhianvi
are also being protected by the political clout they demonstrate at
election time.
He said: "These groups are using democracy to assure their survival.
They are creating the space that enables them to go around and pursue
their extremist agendas and resort to violence. The government then
finds it very difficult to control them."
For weeks Ludhianvi has been cruising around his constituency in a
four wheel-drive vehicle, holding stump speeches and generally
presenting himself as regular politician.
"I have no anti-Shia agenda, I want to bring peace," he says. "We just
demand that sharia law is fully impended."
He said his main effort if he gets into parliament will be to sponsor
a bill that would further tighten the country's much-criticised
blasphemy laws and introduce sanctions such as hand amputations for
thieves.
But his followers freely speak of their deep revulsion towards Shias.
Mohammad Anwar Saeed, a Ludhianvi aide, said other clauses of the
hoped for bill would include a ban on Shias conducting any religious
events outside their own places of worship.
Traditionally during the month of Muharram members of the Shia
community process through the streets engaging in public acts of
mourning, and even self-flagellation, that hardline Sunnis abhor.
Another worker, when asked why they the party does not canvas among
the town's shias, laughed at the idea. "The Shias are like dogs, we
cannot ask them to vote for us," he said.
Some counter-terror experts argue that groups like ASWJ should be
encouraged to take part in the political process. They hope that they
will concentrate on broadly legal activities, such as preaching and
running welfare organisations, rather than perpetrating acts of
violence and terrorism.
Others are not so sure. "When they were doing politics last time in
Jhang they were killing more people," said Akram, the former national
assembly member for Jhang. "There was more terrorism, more crime and
more attacks on the Shia."
It's a view echoed by Jhang's alarmed Shia community, who remember all
too well the last time an SSP leader held the seat in 2002. "I was
only a child, but a remember seeing bodies in the street and curfews
every night," said Sadar Farrukh, a young English teacher and member
of the Shia community. "We don't want to go back to those times."
guardian
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